The city needs to frontload resources and address this issue for what it truly is: a public health crisis. We need greater resources to educate youth, adolescents and adults about drugs and addiction, bigger investments in available community treatment programs, and a greater focus on housing and job opportunities for our communities.

Over-policing and handcuffs as a cure-all never works, and accosting New Yorkers in black and brown neighborhoods for crime tips is equally unpromising, divisive and disparate. Furthermore, treating overdose cases as homicide investigations is a wrongheaded approach and insensitive to families reeling from the immediate trauma and possible loss of a loved one. They need help, comfort and guidance, not interrogations and threats of arrest.

Diversion and treatment programs like HOPE, which was recently established on Staten Island, afford people a genuine second chance and improve public safety. Drug squads are a waste of taxpayer’s money after the harm is done. Real solutions start at the beginning with education and treatment.

Christopher Pisciotta

Attorney-In-Charge of the Criminal Practice on Staten Island at The Legal Aid Society

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